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What is one step a small business owner can take to best manage workplace health and safety?
To help small business owners manage workplace health and safety, we asked CEOs and small business owners this question for their best advice. From testing your health and safety procedures to preparing a checklist of all potential hazards and risks, there are several steps that you may take as a small business owner to best manage the health and safety of employees in the workplace.
Test Your Health and Safety Procedures
You can put what you think are the best workplace health and safety protocols in place, but you will not know if they work unless you test them, which is something every owner should do. Businesses have different structures and needs, and though there are common workplace measures, those differences may cause hiccups in implementing health and safety protocols.
Once deciding on your policy, you need to take it for a spin and check for exits from the building being efficient, employees knowing reporting procedures, the proper use of safety equipment, the placement and amount of first aid on-site, and other pertinent matters. Creating a comprehensive and well-thought-out policy is essential, but the devil is in the detail, and the only way an owner can make sure their policy is sufficient is to test it out.
Anthony Puopolo, Rex MD
Educate Stakeholders On Laws and Regulations
While managing workplace health and safety is often viewed as a proactive step that a small business owner can take, most of these procedures are also required by law. Educating employees, clients, and all other stakeholders who enter the workplace is a great way to ensure that they follow these workplace regulations. It is also an excellent idea to let stakeholders know of these laws because it is then more manageable for the small business owner to enforce the health and safety precautions they have in place without resistance. Since stakeholders now know they would violate the law if they ignore workplace protocols, they will follow them more diligently.
Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.
Engage The Services of OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offers a no-cost consultation service that will work with you to identify potential workplace hazards and opportunities for improvement to existing safety processes. Separate from OSHA inspections, the consultation service is confidential, and no citations will be issued. Taking part in a consultation can result in a one-year exemption from your annual OSHA inspection. There's also a library of OSHA resources, including free courses addressing workplace safety for anyone to take advantage of!
Joshua Chin, Chronos
Draft a Health and Safety Policy for Workers Reference
Establishing a health and safety policy is the first step a small business owner should take to manage the well-being of their workers. Small businesses don't have large administrative departments to consider the approach and examine workplace safety from a legal or ethical perspective. The responsibility ultimately falls on a compact management team to oversee the administrative functions of a small business, and this includes outlining workplace safety policies. Owners and operators of small businesses should establish their safety policy in a document that can be easily disseminated to their workforce and referred to at any time. This is a reasonable first step in managing a small business's workplace health and safety.
Katy Carrigan, Goody
Report Injuries No Matter How Minor
You must emphasize to your employees the importance of reporting anything that might occur when someone gets injured, even if they consider it minor. All near misses, even a bandage for a cut, should be reported and logged. Reports will most likely increase in the short team, especially if there is a culture of nonreporting, but this will level off. You are creating a new safety culture, and this small step will positively affect your company's overall safety. When your workplace safety culture is proactive, you also keep track of what people do to avoid injuries and accidents. You will be able to prevent future injuries by your employees.
Mark Daoust, Quiet Light
Update Safety Measures and Training
Safety measures and training should be updated regularly. Technology and work processes change rapidly, and you should always be aware of any possible risks that arise with these changes and plan accordingly. As an employer, health and safety in the workplace it's your responsibility.
Suppose an accident of any kind happened in a workplace or environment for which you are responsible. It should be properly investigated in-depth to prevent it from happening again.
John Cheng, Baotris
Make Health and Safety Part of The Business Culture
The best way to manage workplace health and safety for small business owners is to make it a part of their business culture. Health and safety should always be central in the business' culture. The easiest way to accomplish this is to start slowly. Define responsibilities, develop a health and safety system that works, involve employees of all levels, and hold everyone accountable. I also believe that small business owners should commit to continual growth and expansion when managing workplace health and safety.
Ian Kelly, NuLeaf Naturals
Decide Together as a Team
Include employees in decisions made about how to handle health and safety. Doing so ensures greater success for several reasons. First, when we make the rules, we're more inclined to keep them and enforce them.
Second, the staff can help spot workplace risks. Lastly, it's easier to understand which safety rules are practical and which aren't when the research is spread across departments. A team that collaborates on issues like health and safety is not only more committed to said issues but more cohesive overall!
Erin Banta, Pepper
Create a Rotating Health and Safety Committee
This is the best way to involve employees in health and safety training and protocol and develop a team mentality around the well-being of all company employees. If everyone knows they will be stepping into a leadership position on health and safety matters, it will ensure the team is equally trained and equally monitored and supported. Letting health and safety be a team experience is the best way to get everyone on the same page and equally invested in the well-being of the whole company.
Tony Staehelin, Benable
Hold Periodic Refreshers On Health and Safety Procedures
Early refreshers on health and safety procedures can be a great way to maintain a safe workspace for employees. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. It's unrealistic to expect employees to remember all health and safety procedures for your business right out of the box.
When adding new elements to your business that may affect worker safety, it's important to go over new procedures several times at the beginning of implementation. Don't take it on faith that employees have understood and retained new procedures after a single meeting or lesson. In the first month, review procedures frequently to ensure everyone understands them thoroughly. Even after that, periodic refreshment is also a good idea to ensure employees haven't become so comfortable that they may cut corners regarding workplace health and safety.
Alex Chavarry, Cool Links
Post Guidelines in a Visible Place for Workers
Posting relevant guidelines in a visible place is an easy precaution small business owners can take to manage workplace safety. Having a set of guidelines posted in a convenient and visible location can help ensure the safety of customers and employees.
Every workplace comes with its own set of risks. The relevant safety guidelines will be different for a restaurant than for a hardware store. Simply posting a piece of paper with the guidelines in a high-traffic area of the business will act as a constant visual cue. If employees can use the safety guidelines as a checklist to follow throughout their daily job requirements, then the business owner has taken steps to meet their responsibility of ensuring workplace safety.
Sean Doherty, Box Genie
Prepare a Checklist of all Potential Hazards and Risks
If you run a small business, don't think providing and managing workplace health and safety is challenging. It's not so hard. One step you should take is to prepare a comprehensive checklist of all potential hazards and risks. Divide your list into sections to make it easier to manage the object. For example, include such sections as floors and walkways, fire safety, electrical or chemical hazards, and any other dangers. Then for each of the sections, prepare to verify questions. Are rubber mats provided to prevent slips? Are ladders in good condition? Are fire extinguishers provided in each work area? Are all chemicals properly labeled and stored? - these are just some safety-check questions you must remember. Based on this comprehensive list, regularly check workplace health and safety.
Nina Paczka, MyPerfectResume
Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org
Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.


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WEST CHESTER, Ohio (AP) — AK Steel Holding Corp. said Tuesday that its third-quarter loss widened to $60.9 million, as steel prices dropped.
The results fell significantly short of Wall Street predictions and AK Steel shares tumbled in morning trading.
The West Chester, Ohio-based company's loss amounted to 55 cents per share compared with a loss of $3.5 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue fell 7.7 percent to $1.46 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 35 cents per share on $1.48 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
Steel shipments were flat at about 1.4 million tons, and the selling price per ton fell 7.3 percent to $1,073 per ton.
AK Steel said that tough economic conditions around the world continue to hurt steel shipping volumes and prices. In addition, the company said it continues to deal with some higher-cost raw material inventories.
AK Steel didn't release specific fourth-quarter guidance, but said it expects to post a loss. Analysts expect a loss of 11 cents per share for the quarter.
AK Steel shares fell 27 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $5.24 in morning trading, after dipping as low as $5.12 earlier in the day.


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Naked Bar Lifting
By Jim Schmitz
U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team Coach 1980, 1988 & 1992
Author of Olympic-style Weightlifting for Beginner & Intermediate Weightlifters Manual and DVD
Naked Bar Lifting
This article doesn't have anything to do with liting without your clothes on, but rather lifting just the empty bar of 15 or 20 kg. The term "naked bar" came from one of my female lifters, Julia Ames-Jung. For years when coaching lifters, after they had lifted their top weight I would say, "Strip the bar down to empty, no weights on the bar." About 10 years ago when she was learning to lift, Julia said, "You mean naked?" I've been using the term "naked" ever since. Now on to some naked bar lifting.
When I first joined Alex's Gym in November 1964, you had to be able to begin your lifting with 61 kg (135 lb.), as that was what was normally left on the bar for benches, squats and Olympic lifting. That was the 20.5-kg (45-lb.) bar with a 20.5-kg (45-lb.) steel plate on each side. This setup was also referred to as base weight. You had to be strong enough to begin your lifts with base weight or you would get teased—or worse, told to come back when you were strong enough to train at Alex's.
Many years later we not only begin our lifts with the empty bar, but we don't even do that until we've completed 15 to 30 minutes of general warm-ups and stretching with no weights. Below is my naked bar lifting or warm-up routine.
1. Military press alternating in front of head and behind: 10 reps (5 in front, 5 behind)
2. Back squat: 5 reps
3. Good morning: 5 reps
4. Front squat: 5 reps
5. Stiff-legged deadlift: 5 reps
6. Snatch high pull to chest from thighs, knees and shins: 6 reps (2 from each position)
7. Muscle snatch: 5 reps
8. Overhead squat: 5 reps
That's my basic routine. You can do just about anything with the empty bar for your warm-ups, or even for a really light workout just to keep the joints limber. I recommend that you do exercises 1 through 5 without rest, rest a minute or so and do exercise 6, pause a few moments, and then do exercises 7 and 8. Do however many reps and sets you need to limber up and get your heart rate up and maybe even get a good sweat going. Here are some other great exercises that can be done with just the naked bar.
1. Overhead lunges
2. Lunges with bar on traps
3. Lunges with bar on clavicles or deltoids
4. Power snatch
5. Squat snatch
6. Split snatch alternating feet
7. Power clean and/or military press and/or push press and/or push jerk
8. Squat clean and/or push press and/or push jerk and/or jerk
9. Split cleans alternating feet and/or push jerk and/or split jerk
Some additional empty bar exercises are:
1. Side bends
2. Trunk twists
3. Squat position with bar resting on your thighs, hold for 30+ seconds
You can't do all the exercises I've mentioned here in one workout, but if you did the first eight that would certainly cover everything. Take some time to experiment to find out which exercises get you thoroughly warmed up for the big lifts to follow.
When I attend the World Championships or the Olympics, I always make it to the training hall and warm-up room to watch some training and competition warm-ups. It's pretty much universal that everyone does a fair amount of naked bar lifting before they begin lifting their weights. At the 2002 World Championships in Warsaw, Poland I got to watch Hossein Rezazedah train. He started with a massage and then did about 10 minutes with the empty bar. He then proceeded to put a pair of 25-kg plates on the bar and continued to go up in 50-, 40-, 30-, and 10-kg jumps until he reached 200 kg in the snatch. Then he backed off to 120 and did some cleans and jerks and back squats—pretty big weights, but I don't remember what they were exactly, I think a 240 clean and jerk and 300 front squat, taking 50- and 40-kg jumps.
Also working out that day was a young unknown Austrian lifter, Matthias Steiner (2008 Olympic super heavyweight champion for Germany). He also did his share of naked bar warm-ups and lifts before he started his serious lifting. I always tell my lifters if the strongest man in the world starts his workout with the naked bar, so can you!
For more information on Olympic-style weightlifting, weight training, lifter profiles, and competition reports, visit our Weightlifting Resource Pages.
Jim Schmitz's gold-medal articles on weightlifting and weight training are regularly featured in MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes.
Take advantage of what Jim Schmitz, absolutely one of the best American coaches in the sport, can teach you in his Olympic-style Weightlifting for the Beginner & Intermediate Weightlifters Manual and DVD.


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3 Major Takeaways from the New York Jets vs. Detroit Lions Game
By vincenthall
Jul 31, 2013; Cortland, NY, USA; New York Jets center Nick Mangold (74) walks to the practice field prior to training camp at SUNY Cortland. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
Staff writer Vincent Hall checks in with three points he took away from last night that he wanted to share.
First off, the offensive line is not a power line. Early in the first quarter, I watched the Jets 1st team O-line try some pretty straight forward up the gut running. It resulted in some 1 and 2 yard gains and a few stops right at the line. I think the line will be very good as the season goes on, but where it will shine is in finesse and in pass blocking initially. The same linemen, that stayed in a few more series when Geno Smith came in, were far more successful on pitches, draw, and zone read running plays.
Next up was the receivers. I have been wondering who will step up, and frankly I'm pessimistic about the quality of receivers on the team when the real regular season games start. One thing that I didn't realize until tonight was that there may be a strength in the tight ends in the passing game. Not including Jeff Cumberland's touchdown on a busted coverage, the tight ends, and Winslow Jr. in particular were routinely getting open in the short and intermediate area. Every time I saw the play extend or Sanchez check down, in the replay was an open tight end. I hope that given time, Sanchez, or Geno, or whoever will start to look for the tight ends faster, and more routinely. I also think there may be a possibility in this offense for some two TE sets with Cumberland and Winslow Jr. or even as a base offense at times.
Lastly, and I will keep this brief was the QB competition. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think the Jets should put Geno Smith 3rd on the depth chart. I'm sure a lot of people aren't going to agree with me on that, but that's the way it looks to me. First, he needs a year to just develop and get the pace of the game down. Secondly, I think Sanchez played well. He threw the INT, which everyone is going to harp on, but a tackles job is to make sure he gets a defensive lineman's hands down on screen plays. D'brick disengaged the DE just as Sanchez was passing and it resulted in an easy interception. Other than that Sanchez hit 10/13 for +70% completion and 12+ yards a completion. He also in only 13 passes had 3 throws of 20 or more yards. Even though it's preseason I think that's pretty good. Geno Smith while only missing 1 pass, didn't really move the ball as well (not all his fault) and in multiple series finished with under 50 yards. He did complete some safer short throws and not turn the ball over.
This brings me to my point. I think Greg McElroy is freaking great. Every time the guy plays well, it is followed by an asterisk that he played against a third string. I think the guy was very accurate in short and intermediate throws. He moved his feet well in the pocket, and extended the plays resulting in a TD on one drive, and he's always moving the sticks. He was 11 of 19, but by my count he had two passes bounce off the hands of Spadola, one drop by KJ Stroud, one by Rogers, and another by a tight end on a 3rd down that would have made it 1st down. That's 5 I count, and 4 because one was a diving grab that Spadola couldn't get. His final stat line should have been 15/19 or so. Basically 75% of his passes hit his target in the hands.
If it is a genuine QB battle, in my book the depth chart is Sanchez 1st, followed closely by McElroy, followed closely by Geno Smith. In my opinion this would work out best, because it would allow Sanchez to drive up his value, McElroy to provide real completion and/or a solid backup QB. Also Geno Smith looks like he might need a season to really be ready to take the reins. All that said, I thought it was a positive and productive preseason week 1 game.


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